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Interviewed on PBS News Hour here, my colleague Jenny Rivera of CUNY School of Law had this to say about Sotomayer (for whom she clerked) in terms of background, judicial diversity, and decision-making:

GWEN IFILL: Well, I want to pick up on that with Jenny
Rivera, because you talk about the real life experience of a Thurgood
Marshall. How much of the real-life experience of a Sonia Sotomayor
could you be expected to actually have an impact in some place as
august as the Supreme Court?

JENNY RIVERA: Well, as she said
today, her life experiences have informed who she is. They've shaped
who she is. It certainly shapes the way the world perceives her.

She
grew up, as we all know now, very humble beginnings, grew up basically
at the knee of her mother. And so those experiences are going to inform
the way she sees those cases.

and later:

GWEN IFILL: Jenny Rivera, how much is there -- is there a
just concern about identity politics beginning to define the day for
picks like this? Here we have another first.

JENNY RIVERA:
Well, I think the president didn't make a choice based on identity
politics. He made the choice based on the merits of her intellectual
capabilities, on the experience that she brought to the court.

And
you heard David Axelrod say, you know, the fact that she happens to
also be Latina and be a woman, it's wonderful that we can bring that to
the court. But this was a choice based on the strength of her
background, her experience, and her intellect. And, certainly, that's
important.

But at the same time, we have to recognize that the
court is vulnerable to criticism that it doesn't look like the rest of
the country and therefore is insensitive to those issues, and it is
encased in this bubble, and there's an insularity about the court.

So
it is important that we all feel that all sections, all branches of
government somehow have a certain integrity behind them and really
speak to people.

And I think certainly President Obama, when he
says he's looking for someone who has empathy and who understands the
implications of these cases on real people, is recognizing also the
significance of the judiciary, not just the executive branch, not just
the legislative branch, being a branch of government that all people in
the United States, all our various, diverse communities can feel carry
a certain integrity behind them and rule not based on appearances, but
look at the merits of the case, and apply the rule of law, and apply
those values of the Constitution.

So, given that appraisal, perhaps we could expect Judge Sotomayer to say something like this in her confirmation hearing?

I don't come from an affluent background or a privileged background. My parents were both quite poor when they were growing up.

And I know about their experiences and I didn't experience those things. I don't take credit for anything that they did or anything that they overcame.

But I think that children learn a lot from their parents and they learn from what the parents say. But I think they learn a lot more from what the parents do and from what they take from the stories of their parents lives.

And that's why I went into that in my opening statement. Because when a case comes before me involving, let's say, someone who is an immigrant -- and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases -- I can't help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn't that long ago when they were in that position.

And so it's my job to apply the law. It's not my job to change the law or to bend the law to achieve any result.

But when I look at those cases, I have to say to myself, and I do say to myself, "You know, this could be your grandfather, this could be your grandmother. They were not citizens at one time, and they were people who came to this country."

If so, she'd be repeating exactly what Judge Alito said in the Senate Confirmation hearings - - - as quoted by Glenn Greenwald on salon.com today.